'Ruby the Heart Stealer' testifies in Berlusconi scandal

Karima El-Mahroug, nicknamed Ruby the Heart Stealer, is pictured during a pause in proceedings.

AFP: Olivier Morin

The woman at the centre of a sex scandal involving former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has testified in a Milan court.

Karima el-Mahroug, better known by her stage name Ruby the Heart Stealer, testified for the first time at a trial of three people accused of supplying girls for Mr Berlusconi's so-called "bunga bunga" parties.

Ms El-Mahroug is alleged to have had sex for money with then prime minister Mr Berlusconi when she was 17-years-old.

"I never had sexual relations with him," she told the court in Milan, adding: "I've always refused to be a prostitute."

Ms El-Mahroug described the atmosphere during "bunga bunga" parties hosted by Berlusconi in a discotheque at his villa in 2010, saying she was paid 2,000 or 3,000 euros ($2,600 or $3,900) a night.

She says that up to 20 women dressed in costumes would dance provocatively in front of Berlusconi before stripping to their underwear.

But she insists that she never saw physical contact between the host and the young women.

She said she had never received 5 million euros ($6.4 million) from him as she told friends in phone calls that were tapped by police.

Confronted repeatedly by prosecutors with contradictions between what she told investigators and what she said in the telephone wiretaps, Ms El-Mahroug said she "always talked rubbish" or "could not remember" particular conversations.

Judge Annamaria Gatto at one point interrupted her saying: "This is a trial, not a television show."

The Moroccan-born 21-year-old, a teenage runaway and exotic dancer, also admitted that she had lied to investigators who had questioned her in 2010.

I never had sexual relations with him. I've always refused to be a prostitute.

Ruby the Heart Stealer

Ms El-Mahroug told them at the time that she had told Berlusconi she was a minor but in court she said: "As far as he knew, I was 23 or 24."

"Sometimes I just lied automatically," she added.

Ms El-Mahroug said Berlusconi had asked her for her number and would call her up to invite her, and she would sometimes stay the night with other girls.

Berlusconi says they were "normal dinner parties" followed by "burlesque contests".

The three accused of supplying the girls are Lele Mora, a bankrupt former show business agent, Emilio Fede, a network anchor for Berlusconi's television empire and Nicole Minetti, a showgirl and politician.

Ms El-Mahroug said she first met Mr Fede at a beauty contest in Sicily when she was 16 and he had asked her for her phone number.

She said she had also worked for Mr Mora as an "image girl" at parties.

Ms El-Mahroug said Ms Minetti was a regular attendee at the parties and she had once seen her perform a strip show for Berlusconi dressed as a nun.

Other trials

Berlusconi's separate trial for allegedly having sex with Ms El-Mahroug as a suspected underage prostitute is due to conclude next month after more than two years.

Ms El-Mahroug had been due to testify at that trial but initially said she could not attend as she was in Mexico and was subsequently struck off the witness list by both the prosecution and defence.

Berlusconi is accused of pressuring police to have Ms El-Mahroug released from custody when she was arrested for petty theft so that she would not reveal their liaison.

His defence says he thought she was the niece of then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and only wanted to avoid a diplomatic incident.

Ms El-Mahroug on Friday said she had made up a story about her life the first time she met with Berlusconi at his home in February 2010 and told him that she was "a relative of Mubarak".

Prosecutors have requested that Berlusconi serve six years in prison and be banned from holding any public office for life in that trial, also in Milan, in which the verdict is expected on June 24.

The 76-year-old ex-premier is a senator and as leader of the People of Freedom party is a key player in a grand coalition government with the centre-left Democratic Party unveiled last month.

Berlusconi denies all charges and his supporters say the trial, as well as several other legal cases against him, are an attempt by biased left-wing prosecutors to eliminate him politically.

Berlusconi is also appealing two convictions for tax fraud and for leaking police wiretaps in a newspaper he owns and is under investigation for paying hush money to an alleged pimp and for bribing a left-wing senator to join his party.